Ebooks doTERRA eBook Essential Oils and Fitness | Page 14

Rest
After you’ve done a proper cool down, it is important to rest before your next workout. Your body will be able to perform better after resting.
Lack of rest can lead to injuries or overworking the body. Because it will allow you to continue to have safe, effective workouts, rest is an
element just as crucial as stretching or hydration.
The importance of rest
When you exercise, you are breaking down your muscle
tissue. The pain or soreness you feel after exercise comes
from tiny microtears occurring throughout your tissue. As
you rest (and restore your body with proper nutrition), the
muscle fibers that were torn during exercise begin to repair.
This repairing process, known as hypertrophy, allows the
muscles to grow bigger and stronger.
As you can see, important processes take place during rest.
You need to allow your muscles time to rest in order to repair
the microtears that occurred during your workout. Without
proper rest, you could end up overworking your body or even
damaging muscles or connective tissue by not giving the
muscle tissue ample time to restore itself.
MICROTEARS: Tiny, microscopic
tears in the muscles that occur
during exercise.
HYPERTROPHY: The tissue repair
process that torn muscle fibers go
through during resting periods. During
this process, muscle tissue repairs
itself and grows bigger, stronger,
and more resilient.